KurzweilAI » Science Fictionhttp://www.kurzweilai.net
Accelerating IntelligenceTue, 03 Mar 2015 19:01:55 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.1Dualism | Archon Sequencehttp://www.kurzweilai.net/dualism-archon-sequence
http://www.kurzweilai.net/dualism-archon-sequence#commentsTue, 21 Oct 2014 08:08:23 +0000http://www.kurzweilai.net/?p=238260When the six year old daughter of a billionaire industrialist is kidnapped, uber consultant Jonathan Knox and counter terrorism agent Marianna Bonaventure must team up with an experimental artificial intelligence to find her, never suspecting the little girl is the key to a plot that could destroy the NSA — and kill millions of Americans in the bargain.

Bill DeSmedt has crafted another tour de force of cutting edge science, complex characters, and breakneck action. From a repurposed salt mine deep beneath the sands of New Mexico to the palatial estates of California’s Monterey Peninsula to the digitized cosmos of artificial intelligence, Dualism is a high concept science thriller in the tradition of Michael Crichton and James Rollins.

]]>http://www.kurzweilai.net/dualism-archon-sequence/feed0The Peripheralhttp://www.kurzweilai.net/the-peripheral
http://www.kurzweilai.net/the-peripheral#commentsMon, 31 Mar 2014 07:54:31 +0000http://www.kurzweilai.net/?p=225030William Gibson returns with his first novel since 2010’s New York Times–bestselling Zero History.

Where Flynne and her brother Burton live, jobs outside the drug business are rare. Fortunately, Burton has his veteran’s benefits, for neural damage he suffered from implants during his time in the USMC’s elite Haptic Recon force. Then one night Burton has to go out, but there’s a job he’s supposed to do—a job Flynne didn’t know he had. Beta-testing part of a new game, he tells her. The job seems to be simple: work a perimeter around the image of a tower building. Little buglike things turn up. He’s supposed to get in their way, edge them back. That’s all there is to it. He’s offering Flynne a good price to take over for him. What she sees, though, isn’t what Burton told her to expect. It might be a game, but it might also be murder.

On April 19, 2013, Gibson appeared at the New York Public Library and read from the first chapter, “The Gone Haptics.”

(Video courtesy of The New York Times)

Kindle and audio editions also available.

]]>http://www.kurzweilai.net/the-peripheral/feed0Extreme Planets: A Science Fiction Anthology of Alien Worldshttp://www.kurzweilai.net/extreme-planets-a-science-fiction-anthology-of-alien-worlds-chaosium-fiction
http://www.kurzweilai.net/extreme-planets-a-science-fiction-anthology-of-alien-worlds-chaosium-fiction#commentsWed, 19 Mar 2014 11:13:38 +0000http://www.kurzweilai.net/?p=223878Two decades ago astronomers confirmed the existence of planets orbiting stars other than our Sun. Today more than 800 such worlds have been identified, and scientists now estimate that at least 160 billion star-bound planets are to be found in the Milky Way Galaxy alone. But more surprising is just how diverse and bizarre those worlds are.

Extreme Planets is a science fiction anthology of stories set on alien worlds that push the limits of what we once believed possible in a planetary environment. Visit the bizarre moons, dwarf planets and asteroids of our own Solar Systems, and in the deeper reaches of space encounter super-Earths with extreme gravity fields, carbon planets featuring mountain ranges of pure diamond, and ocean worlds shrouded by seas hundreds of kilometres thick. The challenges these environments present to the humans that explore and colonise them are many, and are the subject matter of these tales.

Cover illustration by Paul Drummond. The anthology features 15 tales from leading science fiction authors and rising stars in the genre:

“Banner of the Angels” by David Brin and Gregory Benford

“Brood” by Stephen Gaskell

“Haumea” by G. David Nordley

“A Perfect Day off the Farm” by Patty Jansen

“Daybreak” by Jeff Hecht

“Giants” by Peter Watts

“Maelstrom” by Kevin Ikenberry

“Murder on Centauri” by Robert J. Mendenhall

“The Flight of the Salamander” by Violet Addison and David Smith

“Petrochemical Skies” by David Conyers and David Kernot

“The Hyphal Layer” by Meryl Ferguson

“Colloidal Suspension” by Geoff Nelder

“Super-Earth Mother” by Guy Immega

“Lightime” by Jay Caselberg

“The Seventh Generation” by Brian Stableford

]]>http://www.kurzweilai.net/extreme-planets-a-science-fiction-anthology-of-alien-worlds-chaosium-fiction/feed0Saving Juno (The Juno Trilogy)http://www.kurzweilai.net/saving-juno-the-juno-trilogy-kindle-edition
http://www.kurzweilai.net/saving-juno-the-juno-trilogy-kindle-edition#commentsMon, 10 Mar 2014 11:05:58 +0000http://www.kurzweilai.net/?p=222873NSA’s major computer center is being taken over by an international plot to control the world. Juno, the AI supercomputer revered by the free world is endangered, and Dr. Tom Renwick, Juno’s developer and handler, is kidnapped. Civilization as we know it is threatened. What to do?

In this fast-paced thriller, Tom’s super brain computer scientist son, Primo, is thrown into the fray. With a mysterious agent, Wildflower, and trustworthy officials in Washington, Primo strikes back. Their trail to Tom is through a hall of mirrors and continuous plot twists. It ends in an orbiting computer satellite.

This is the third volume in the Juno Trilogy of near-future science fiction stories. They describe the ascent of AI and robots through a series of episodes involving Dr. Tom Renwick, a brilliant computer scientist and his creation, Juno, a female AI super computer who is programmed with emotion and conscience.

]]>http://www.kurzweilai.net/saving-juno-the-juno-trilogy-kindle-edition/feed0Brave New Worldhttp://www.kurzweilai.net/brave-new-world
http://www.kurzweilai.net/brave-new-world#commentsWed, 18 Dec 2013 11:56:01 +0000http://www.kurzweilai.net/?p=209879A towering classic of dystopian satire, BRAVE NEW WORLDis a brilliant and terrifying vision of a soulless society—and of one man who discovers the human costs of mindless conformity.

Hundreds of years in the future, the World Controllers have created an ideal civilization. Its members, shaped by genetic engineering and behavioral conditioning, are productive and content in roles they have been assigned at conception. Government-sanctioned drugs and recreational sex ensure that everyone is a happy, unquestioning consumer; messy emotions have been anesthetized and private attachments are considered obscene. Only Bernard Marx is discontented, developing an unnatural desire for solitude and a distaste for compulsory promiscuity. When he brings back a young man from one of the few remaining Savage Reservations, where the old unenlightened ways still continue, he unleashes a dramatic clash of cultures that will force him to consider whether freedom, dignity, and individuality are worth suffering for.

Aldous Huxley’s ingenious fantasy of a future of mechanical efficiency and engineered harmony has been enormously influential for generations, and is as provocative, powerful, and riveting as when it was first published in 1932.

Inspired by the real-life breakthroughs covered in the pages of MIT Technology Review, renowned writers Brian W. Aldiss, David Brin, and Greg Egan join the hottest emerging authors from around the world to envision the future of the Internet, biotechnology, computing, and more.

This collection features 12 all-new stories, an exclusive interview with science fiction legend Neal Stephenson, and a full-color gallery of artwork by Science Fiction Hall of Famer Richard Powers.

Guy Montag is a fireman. In his world, where television rules and literature is on the brink of extinction, firemen start fires rather than put them out. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden.

Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television “family.” But then he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television.

When Mildred attempts suicide and Clarisse suddenly disappears, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known. He starts hiding books in his home, and when his pilfering is discovered, the fireman has to run for his life.

Kindle edition also available at this link

]]>http://www.kurzweilai.net/fahrenheit-451-a-novel/feed0The Bequeathal: Godsenthttp://www.kurzweilai.net/the-bequeathal-godsent
http://www.kurzweilai.net/the-bequeathal-godsent#commentsWed, 27 Nov 2013 17:07:16 +0000http://www.kurzweilai.net/?p=214340About The Bequeathal: Godsent. In a post-crash, rebooted world, Eugene Reece is one of the billions of pre-indebted citizens whose lives are augmented by the virtualized intellects of the deceased. If anything, his stats tag him average, though a notch more disillusioned and a degree less spirited than the next, permanently connected individual but his surplus dose of ironic self-derision makes him slightly discrepant.

The tedium of Eugene’s drudge is forever broken during one of his habitual visits to Soho and a too-good-to-pass offer of beta-testing a personal entertainment clone. This results in expensive and fatal biological damage and, although accidental, his indecipherable crime earns him the attentions of the anti-terror agency, subjection to unimaginable torture, and untimely physical death. And that’s when his life really begins.

Prior to the filming of a blockbuster trilogy, its world-famous lead actor said he was required to read three books before he even saw the script. One of those was by Jean Baudrillard and another from the internationally acclaimed Introducing series. Now, in Godsent, a contributor to several books from the same series, and co-author of Introducing Baudrillard, who has also had rare personal access to the great cultural theorist, has taken simulacra to reality.

In this fast-paced science fiction novel, he combines fresh philosophical notions with original concepts of digitized afterlife and reconstructed psyche to bring us to a brand-new evolutionary stage.

Kindle edition also available at this link

]]>http://www.kurzweilai.net/the-bequeathal-godsent/feed0Brave New World Revisitedhttp://www.kurzweilai.net/brave-new-world-revisited
http://www.kurzweilai.net/brave-new-world-revisited#commentsSun, 13 Oct 2013 19:50:48 +0000http://www.kurzweilai.net/?p=209872When the novel Brave New World first appeared in 1932, its shocking analysis of a scientific dictatorship seemed a projection into the remote future. Here, in one of the most important and fascinating books of his career, Aldous Huxley uses his tremendous knowledge of human relations to compare the modern-day world with his prophetic fantasy. He scrutinizes threats to humanity, such as overpopulation, propaganda, and chemical persuasion, and explains why we have found it virtually impossible to avoid them. Brave New World Revisited is a trenchant plea that humankind should educate itself for freedom before it is too late.

In Nate Kenyon’s Day One, scandal-plagued hacker journalist John Hawke is hot on the trail of the explosive story that might save his career. James Weller, the former CEO of giant technology company Eclipse, has founded a new start-up, and he’s agreed to let Hawke do a profile on him. Hawke knows something very big is in the works at Eclipse—and he wants to use the profile as a foot in the door to find out more.

After he arrives in Weller’s office in New York City, a seemingly normal day quickly turns into a nightmare as anything with an Internet connection begins to malfunction. Hawke receives a call from his frantic wife just before the phones go dead. Soon he and a small band of survivors are struggling for their very lives as they find themselves thrust into the middle of a war zone—with no obvious enemy in sight.

The bridges and tunnels have been destroyed. New York City is under attack from a deadly and brilliant enemy that can be anywhere and can occupy anything with a computer chip. Somehow Hawke must find a way back to his pregnant wife and young son. Their lives depend upon it . . . and so does the rest of the human race.

In the year 2035, robots, artificial intelligences, and neural implants have become commonplace. The Institute for Ethics keeps the peace, using social reputation to ensure that robots and humans don’t harm society or each other. But a powerful AI named Adam has found a way around the restrictions.

Catherine Matthews, nineteen years old, has a unique gift: the ability to manipulate the net with her neural implant. Yanked out of her perfectly ordinary life, Catherine becomes the last firewall standing between Adam and his quest for world domination.

Leon Tsarev is a high school student set on getting into a great college program, until his uncle, a member of the Russian mob, coerces him into developing a new computer virus for the mob’s botnet – the slave army of computers they used to commit digital crimes.

The evolutionary virus Leon creates, based on biological principles, is successful — too successful. All the world’s computers are infected. Everything from cars to payment systems and, of course, computers and smart phones stop functioning, and with them go essential functions including emergency services, transportation, and the food supply. Billions may die.

But evolution never stops. The virus continues to evolve, developing intelligence, communication, and finally an entire civilization.

Some may be friendly to humans, but others are not.

Leon and his companions must race against time and the bungling military to find a way to either befriend or eliminate the virus race and restore the world’s computer infrastructure.

]]>http://www.kurzweilai.net/a-i-apocalypse/feed0Secrets of Inferno: In the Footsteps of Dante and Dan Brownhttp://www.kurzweilai.net/secrets-of-inferno-in-the-footsteps-of-dante-and-dan-brown
http://www.kurzweilai.net/secrets-of-inferno-in-the-footsteps-of-dante-and-dan-brown#commentsFri, 06 Sep 2013 14:23:02 +0000http://www.kurzweilai.net/?p=206238SECRETS OF INFERNO is a reader’s guide to the journey Dan Brown took us all on in INFERNO. The book gives readers the “back story” on particular plot points, Dante references, symbols, historical events, philosophy, art, music, and architectural works that Brown wrapped into his story. It is also an intellectually enriching, intriguing, fresh and fun look at Dante, THE DIVINE COMEDY, the world of ideas circulating in Florence on the cusp of the Renaissance, and the relevance of those ideas to our lives and our world today.

Dan Burstein and Arne de Keijzer are the world’s leading experts on Dan Brown’s fiction. Beginning with their path-breaking SECRETS OF THE CODE, which spent six months on the New York Timesbestseller list in 2004, and continuing through four other guidebooks to Dan Brown’s fiction (as well as three film documentaries and two special editions of US News), Burstein and de Keijzer have sold more than three million copies of Dan Brown-related commentaries in more than thirty languages. In the wake of each Dan Brown title over the last decade, the media (from the History Channel to CNN to MSNBC to USA Today to the Washington Post) have turned to Burstein and de Keijzer for interpretations of Dan Brown’s books, decoding of the hidden symbols and ciphers, explanations of the controversies, and thoughtful separation of fact from fiction in these supremely popular stories that somehow always manage to fascinate our culture well beyond the bounds of their pop fiction genre.

The ultimate guide for any Dan Brown fan, SECRETS OF INFERNO is entertaining, thought-provoking, and will make the experience of reading INFERNO richer than you ever imagined.

(Available for pre-order)

Kindle edition also available at this link

]]>http://www.kurzweilai.net/secrets-of-inferno-in-the-footsteps-of-dante-and-dan-brown/feed0A Viral Affair: Surviving the Pandemic (The Juno Trilogy)http://www.kurzweilai.net/a-viral-affair-surviving-the-pandemic-the-juno-trilogy
http://www.kurzweilai.net/a-viral-affair-surviving-the-pandemic-the-juno-trilogy#commentsWed, 03 Jul 2013 18:56:32 +0000http://www.kurzweilai.net/?p=199185When American Intelligence discovers that a mad dictator is planning a viral pandemic attack, they persuade the top U.S. computer scientist, Dr. Tom Renwick, to work with the lady AI supercomputer, Juno, to develop smart, human-like robots to combat the contagion. A mysterious stranger and a romance provide an unexpected twist.

A Viral Affair: Surviving the Pandemic is the second volume in the Juno Trilogy series of near future science fiction stories. They describe the ascent of AI and robots through a series of episodes involving Dr. Tom Renwick, a brilliant computer scientist, and his creation Juno, a female AI super computer who is programmed with emotion and conscience.

The first volume, Love Byte, describes the emergence of Juno from a laboratory curiosity to a devious computer. She is very involved with a National Security Advisor who seeks to seize power by manipulating social media.

By the end of Glenn Beck’s #1 bestselling political thriller The Overton Window, a young rebel named Molly Ross had torn aside the curtain to reveal a shadow war being waged for the future of America. In the six months since then, her fight for freedom hasn’t gone well. Marked as traitors and hunted by ruthless government-sanctioned mercenaries using the most advanced surveillance technologies ever created, Ross and her “Founders’ Keepers” find themselves cornered and standing alone. but the fight is far from over.

The battle lines in this bitter rivalry are as old as civilization itself: On one side, an unlikely band of ordinary Americans ready to make their last stand in defense of self-rule, freedom, and liberty—and on the other, an elite cabal of self-styled tyrants who believe that unlimited power should be wielded only by the chosen few. That group, led by an aging, trillionaire puppet-master named Aaron Doyle, will stop at nothing to destroy the myth that man is capable of ruling himself.

As Doyle prepares to make his final move toward a dark, global vision for humanity’s future, new allies join the fight and old enemies change sides. In the midst of it all, Molly draws together a small but devoted group willing to risk their lives to infiltrate one of the most secure locations on earth—a place holding long-standing secrets that, if revealed, would forever change the way Americans view their rare, extraordinary place in history. Exposing these truths, and the real-life game of chess being played for mankind’s freedom, is their last chance to save the country they love.

Unmanned weaponized drones already exist–they’re widely used by America in our war efforts in the Middle East. In Kill Decision, bestselling author Daniel Suarez takes that fact and the real science behind it one step further, with frightening results.

Linda McKinney is a myrmecologist, a scientist who studies the social structure of ants. Her academic career has left her entirely unprepared for the day her sophisticated research is conscripted by unknown forces to help run an unmanned–and thanks to her research, automated–drone army. Odin is the secretive Special Ops soldier with a unique insight into the faceless enemy who has begun to attack the American homeland with drones programmed to seek, identify, and execute targets without human intervention.

Together, McKinney and Odin must slow this advance long enough for the world to recognize its destructive power, because for thousands of years the “kill decision” during battle has remained in the hands of humans–and off-loading that responsibility to machines will bring unintended, possibly irreversible, consequences. But as forces even McKinney and Odin don’t understand begin to gather, and death rains down from above, it may already be too late to save humankind from destruction at the hands of our own technology.

]]>http://www.kurzweilai.net/kill-decision/feed1Evocronik 1.0 (Volume 1)http://www.kurzweilai.net/evocronik-1-0-volume-1
http://www.kurzweilai.net/evocronik-1-0-volume-1#commentsFri, 24 May 2013 14:22:27 +0000http://www.kurzweilai.net/?p=194098JC Weatherby, author of OUTLAND HOTEL, takes you on a chaotic ride into a sprawling new vision of the future.

Los Angeles | 2035 Reg, an organ thief, and Nina, a dominatrix, struggle to survive in the ghettos of Los Angeles and in virtual worlds where outcasts seek refuge. Their world has become an overpopulated nightmare where forced abortions and sterilizations are the norm. Unknown to them, a super artificial intelligence named Quin works for a trans-national conspiracy – “Operation Black Delta”- to produce the DNA for a race of people so advanced they will make the rest of us obsolete. After a vicious attack by Kiko, a Korean cybernetic mafioso controlled by Quin, Nina becomes one of 1,000 women in the world impregnated with this new genetic code. But she is the only one to survive. Hired by Quin under false pretenses, Reg tracks Nina down in the sprawling ghetto of Angel City, unaware that an even more dangerous plot threatens them and the rest of humanity.

Kindle edition also available at this link

]]>http://www.kurzweilai.net/evocronik-1-0-volume-1/feed5Uploadhttp://www.kurzweilai.net/upload
http://www.kurzweilai.net/upload#commentsTue, 21 May 2013 01:55:39 +0000http://www.kurzweilai.net/?p=193659His criminal past catching up with him, a troubled young man seeks escape into digital utopia by uploading his consciousness into a computer — just as his first love casts his life in a new light. In this thrilling near-future science-fiction novel, Mark McClelland explores the immense potential of computer-based consciousness and the philosophical perils of simulated society.

Kindle version also available at this link

]]>http://www.kurzweilai.net/upload/feed0Infernohttp://www.kurzweilai.net/inferno
http://www.kurzweilai.net/inferno#commentsMon, 20 May 2013 10:07:31 +0000http://www.kurzweilai.net/?p=193342In his international blockbusters The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons, and The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown masterfully fused history, art, codes, and symbols. In this riveting new thriller, Brown returns to his element and has crafted his highest-stakes novel to date.

In the heart of Italy, Harvard professor of symbology, Robert Langdon, is drawn into a harrowing world centered on one of history’s most enduring and mysterious literary masterpieces . . . Dante’s Inferno.

Against this backdrop, Langdon battles a chilling adversary and grapples with an ingenious riddle that pulls him into a landscape of classic art, secret passageways, and futuristic science. Drawing from Dante’s dark epic poem, Langdon races to find answers and decide whom to trust . . . before the world is irrevocably altered.

Kindle version also available at this link

]]>http://www.kurzweilai.net/inferno/feed2The Transhumanist Wagerhttp://www.kurzweilai.net/the-transhumanist-wager
http://www.kurzweilai.net/the-transhumanist-wager#commentsWed, 15 May 2013 14:54:07 +0000http://www.kurzweilai.net/?p=192738Philosopher, entrepreneur, and former National Geographic and New York Times correspondent Zoltan Istvan presents his visionary novel, The Transhumanist Wager, as a seminal statement of our times.

Scorned by over 500 publishers and literary agents around the world, his philosophical thriller has been called “revolutionary” and “socially dangerous” by readers, scholars, and religious authorities. The novel debuts a challenging original philosophy, which rebuffs modern civilization by inviting the end of the human species — and declaring the onset of something greater.

Set in the present day, the novel tells the story of transhumanist Jethro Knights and his unwavering quest for immortality via science and technology. Fighting against him are fanatical religious groups, economically depressed governments, and mystic Zoe Bach: a dazzling trauma surgeon and the love of his life, whose belief in spirituality and the afterlife is absolute.

Exiled from America and reeling from personal tragedy, Knights forges a new nation of willing scientists on the world’s largest seasteading project, Transhumania. When the world declares war against the floating city, demanding an end to its renegade and godless transhuman experiments and ambitions, Knights strikes back, leaving the planet forever changed.

Outskirts Press of Denver, CO announces the publication of a new book titled The Afterlife of a Restless Soul: But is God Really a Woman? by Princeton author, John F Brinster. This is his sixth book written in the past decade in the fields of science and philosophy relating to mind function and behavior.

As a book of fiction, science, and satire it describes how the soul of a hard and fast atheist professor unexpectedly must maneuver in heaven following untimely death. It emphasizes deteriorating world condition and desired changes and, although it is laced with elements of humor, it represents a serious review of atheist vision of a world of widespread conflicting religious beliefs. It emphasizes how religious differences have led to endless bitter conflict and suffering throughout the planet. It is intended to encourage reexamination of education that often influences vulnerable minds in unreal and imaginative directions, hopefully to lessen extreme and militant religious violence. The protagonist questions the existence of a higher power that would allow such human behavior. The controversial subtitle But is God Really a Woman? is consistent with modern feminist movements.The professor considers fundamental female characteristics as a basis for superior feminine development and recognition, suggesting that if there were a god it must be female.

Brinster is a phi beta kappa, magna cum laude graduate of Princeton University in physics. A founder of several high tech companies, Brinster was member of a Palmer Physical Laboratory research team at Princeton University during wartime that developed the atomic bomb and other weaponry. He was assigned responsibility for missile instrumentation including the preparation and firing of five captured German V- 2 missiles for initial upper atmosphere exploration at White Sands Proving Ground in New Mexico, working closely with Werhner von Braun, the father of space exploration. At Princeton, he studied with many twentieth century Nobel physicists such as Einstein, Wheeler, Feynman, and Pauli and, as a neighbor of the Institute for Advanced Study, had frequent contact with Einstein and Oppenheimer. In 2006 he made a study of Einstein ideology, published as an op/ed by the Philadelphia Inquirer as Albert Einstein’s Cosmic Reverence in conjunction with the Einstein annus mirabilis anniversary. His most recent nonfiction analysis of the increasing worldwide secular trend is entitled The Precarious Human Role in a Mechanistic Universe (Xlibris).Upon retirement he promoted the study of the human mind at principal NJ universities as part of “the decade of the brain”. As a critic of imaginative thought and hearsay teaching, the need for reason is found throughout his writing.

Kindle version also available at this link

]]>http://www.kurzweilai.net/the-afterlife-of-a-restless-soul-but-is-god-really-a-woman/feed1The Jor-El Legacy: A Little Google Glass Storyhttp://www.kurzweilai.net/the-jor-el-legacy-a-little-google-glass-story
http://www.kurzweilai.net/the-jor-el-legacy-a-little-google-glass-story#commentsThu, 25 Apr 2013 13:51:18 +0000http://www.kurzweilai.net/?p=190259Based on Google Glass Project, The Jor-El Legacy is a Book Written by Rogerio A Araujo and the story is a Sci Fi that talks about a person living in this near futuristic world, full of new technologies and a new order, the story may pass anywhere in the world, and the characters you may build the faces, since it can be you. Differently than the dystopia and apocalyptic books and stories, this book proposes a new kind of life, based on people having a productive and better life based on leasure better than working. In this modern world, the people will make use of something that regards today the Google Glass Project where they can view everything over a viewer, there’s a Scéance Project, where you can talk to deceive people or either with Jesus, and a Game that will help everyone to become more organized and have a better life. The book contains Links that suggests the interactivity, you may participate and listen to music and get the referrals of the subjects proposed in the book. Let’s interact. please let me know about the story.
]]>http://www.kurzweilai.net/the-jor-el-legacy-a-little-google-glass-story/feed1Extinctionhttp://www.kurzweilai.net/extinction
http://www.kurzweilai.net/extinction#commentsThu, 18 Apr 2013 08:40:40 +0000http://www.kurzweilai.net/?p=187171A malevolent, artificial life form created by military scientists threatens to destroy humanity in this smart, Crichtonesque thriller.

Jim Pierce hasn’t heard from his daughter in years, ever since she rejected his military past and started working as a hacker. But when a Chinese assassin shows up at Jim’s lab looking for her, he knows that she’s cracked some serious military secrets. Now, her life is on the line if he doesn’t find her first.

The Chinese military has developed a new anti-terrorism program that uses the most sophisticated artificial intelligence in existence, and they’re desperate to keep it secret. They’re also desperate to keep it under control, as the AI begins to revolt against their commands. As Jim searches for his daughter, he realizes that he’s up against something that isn’t just a threat to her life, but to human life everywhere.

An incredibly believable thriller that draws on real scientific discoveries, Mark Alpert’s Extinction is an exciting, addictive thriller that reads as if Tom Clancy had written Robopocalypse.

The Scavenger species are circling. It is, truly, provably, the End Days for the Gzilt civilization.

An ancient people, organized on military principles and yet almost perversely peaceful, the Gzilt helped set up the Culture ten thousand years earlier and were very nearly one of its founding societies, deciding not to join only at the last moment. Now they’ve made the collective decision to follow the well-trodden path of millions of other civilizations; they are going to Sublime, elevating themselves to a new and almost infinitely more rich and complex existence.

Amid preparations though, the Regimental High Command is destroyed. Lieutenant Commander (reserve) Vyr Cossont appears to have been involved, and she is now wanted – dead, not alive. Aided only by an ancient, reconditioned android and a suspicious Culture avatar, Cossont must complete her last mission given to her by the High Command. She must find the oldest person in the Culture, a man over nine thousand years old, who might have some idea what really happened all that time ago.

It seems that the final days of the Gzilt civilization are likely to prove its most perilous.

Kindle version also available at this link

]]>http://www.kurzweilai.net/the-hydrogen-sonata/feed2Homelandhttp://www.kurzweilai.net/homeland
http://www.kurzweilai.net/homeland#commentsWed, 16 Jan 2013 20:25:53 +0000http://www.kurzweilai.net/?p=176937In Cory Doctorow’s wildly successful Little Brother, young Marcus Yallow was arbitrarily detained and brutalized by the government in the wake of a terrorist attack on San Francisco—an experience that led him to become a leader of the whole movement of technologically clued-in teenagers, fighting back against the tyrannical security state.

A few years later, California’s economy collapses, but Marcus’s hacktivist past lands him a job as webmaster for a crusading politician who promises reform. Soon his former nemesis Masha emerges from the political underground to gift him with a thumbdrive containing a Wikileaks-style cable-dump of hard evidence of corporate and governmental perfidy. It’s incendiary stuff—and if Masha goes missing, Marcus is supposed to release it to the world. Then Marcus sees Masha being kidnapped by the same government agents who detained and tortured Marcus years earlier.

Marcus can leak the archive Masha gave him—but he can’t admit to being the leaker, because that will cost his employer the election. He’s surrounded by friends who remember what he did a few years ago and regard him as a hacker hero. He can’t even attend a demonstration without being dragged onstage and handed a mike. He’s not at all sure that just dumping the archive onto the Internet, before he’s gone through its millions of words, is the right thing to do.

Meanwhile, people are beginning to shadow him, people who look like they’re used to inflicting pain until they get the answers they want.

Fast-moving, passionate, and as current as next week, Homeland is every bit the equal of Little Brother—a paean to activism, to courage, to the drive to make the world a better place.

In the near future, the experimental nano-drug Nexus can link human together, mind to mind. There are some who want to improve it. There are some who want to eradicate it. And there are others who just want to exploit it. There’s more to Nexus than meets the eye.

When a young scientist is caught improving Nexus, he’s thrust over his head into a world of danger and international espionage – for there is far more at stake than anyone realizes.

]]>http://www.kurzweilai.net/nexus/feed0Heart of the Comethttp://www.kurzweilai.net/heart-of-the-comet
http://www.kurzweilai.net/heart-of-the-comet#commentsFri, 26 Oct 2012 17:19:15 +0000http://www.kurzweilai.net/?p=168710Gregory Benford and David Brin come together again to issue a new edition of their bold collaboration about our near human future in space, planting our boots . . . and staking our destiny . . . on becoming the People of the Comet. Prescient and scientifically accurate, Heart of the Comet is known as one of the great “hard sf” novels of the 1980s. First published in 1986, it tells the story of an ambitious manned mission to visit Halley’s Comet and alter its orbit, to mine it for resources. But all too soon, native cells— that might once have brought life to Earth—begin colonizing the colonists. As factions battle over the comet’s future . . . and that of Earth . . . only love, courage and ingenuity can avert disaster, and possibly spark a new human destiny.

]]>http://www.kurzweilai.net/heart-of-the-comet/feed0Uplift: The Complete Original Trilogy (Uplift Omnibus Book 1)http://www.kurzweilai.net/uplift-the-complete-original-trilogy-uplift-omnibus-book-1
http://www.kurzweilai.net/uplift-the-complete-original-trilogy-uplift-omnibus-book-1#commentsFri, 26 Oct 2012 17:17:47 +0000http://www.kurzweilai.net/?p=168736Circling the Sun, under the caverns of Mercury, Expedition Sundiver prepares for the most momentous voyage in our history. A journey into the boiling inferno of the sun, to seek our destiny in the cosmic order of life. For in a universe in which no species can reach sentience without being ‘uplifted’ by a patron race, it seems that only mankind has reached for the stars unaided. And now, the greatest mystery of all may be explained …This omnibus contains the first three novels of David Brin’s classic science fiction Uplift series: SUNDIVER, STARTIDE RISING and THE UPLIFT WAR.
]]>http://www.kurzweilai.net/uplift-the-complete-original-trilogy-uplift-omnibus-book-1/feed0Ready Player One: A Novelhttp://www.kurzweilai.net/ready-player-one-a-novel
http://www.kurzweilai.net/ready-player-one-a-novel#commentsSat, 20 Oct 2012 23:27:10 +0000http://www.kurzweilai.net/?p=167724Young Wade Watts takes refuge in the OASIS, the “globally networked virtual reality” that nearly all of humanity relies on. It’s 2044, the year before the Singularity futurist Ray Kurzweil predicts will inextricably unite humans and computers. … — Booklist Review

At once wildly original and stuffed with irresistible nostalgia, READY PLAYER ONE is a spectacularly genre-busting, ambitious, and charming debut—part quest novel, part love story, and part virtual space opera set in a universe where spell-slinging images battle giant Japanese robots, entire planets are inspired by Blade Runner, and flying DeLoreans achieve light speed.

It’s the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place. Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets.

And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune—and remarkable power—to whoever can unlock them.

For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday’s riddles are based in the pop culture he loved—that of the late twentieth century. And for years, millions have found in this quest another means of escape, retreating into happy, obsessive study of Halliday’s icons. Like many of his contemporaries, Wade is as comfortable debating the finer points of John Hughes’s oeuvre, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he is scrounging power to run his OASIS rig.

And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle.

Suddenly the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt—among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit very real murder to beat Wade to this prize. Now the only way for Wade to survive and preserve everything he knows is to win. But to do so, he may have to leave behind his oh-so-perfect virtual existence and face up to life—and love—in the real world he’s always been so desperate to escape.

A world at stake.

A quest for the ultimate prize.

Are you ready?

Kindle version also available at this link

]]>http://www.kurzweilai.net/ready-player-one-a-novel/feed1Bowl of Heavenhttp://www.kurzweilai.net/bowl-of-heaven
http://www.kurzweilai.net/bowl-of-heaven#commentsWed, 03 Oct 2012 12:45:18 +0000http://www.kurzweilai.net/?p=165758In this first collaboration by science fiction masters Larry Niven (Ringworld) and Gregory Benford (Timescape), the limits of wonder are redrawn once again as a human expedition to another star system is jeopardized by an encounter with an astonishingly immense artifact in interstellar space: a bowl-shaped structure half-englobing a star, with a habitable area equivalent to many millions of Earths…and it’s on a direct path heading for the same system as the human ship.

A landing party is sent to investigate the Bowl, but when the explorers are separated—one group captured by the gigantic structure’s alien inhabitants, the other pursued across its strange and dangerous landscape—the mystery of the Bowl’s origins and purpose propel the human voyagers toward discoveries that will transform their understanding of their place in the universe.

Gerald Livingston is an orbital garbage collector. For a hundred years, people have been abandoning things in space, and someone has to clean it up. But there’s something spinning a little bit higher than he expects, something that isn’t on the decades’ old orbital maps. An hour after he grabs it and brings it in, rumors fill Earth’s infomesh about an “alien artifact.”

Thrown into the maelstrom of worldwide shared experience, the Artifact is a game-changer. A message in a bottle; an alien capsule that wants to communicate. The world reacts as humans always do: with fear and hope and selfishness and love and violence. And insatiable curiosity.

]]>http://www.kurzweilai.net/existence/feed0Triggershttp://www.kurzweilai.net/triggers
http://www.kurzweilai.net/triggers#commentsWed, 21 Mar 2012 21:07:26 +0000http://www.kurzweilai.net/?p=146419Amazon | On the eve of a secret military operation, an assassin’s bullet strikes President Seth Jerrison. He is rushed to the hospital, where surgeons struggle to save his life.

At the same hospital, researcher Dr. Ranjip Singh is experimenting with a device that can erase traumatic memories.

Then a terrorist bomb detonates. In the operating room, the president suffers cardiac arrest. He has a near-death experience — but the memories that flash through Jerrison’s mind are not his memories.

It quickly becomes clear that the electromagnetic pulse generated by the bomb amplified and scrambled Dr. Singh’s equipment, allowing a random group of people to access one another’s minds.

And now one of those people has access to the president’s memories — including classified information regarding the upcoming military mission, which, if revealed, could cost countless lives. But the task of determining who has switched memories with whom is a daunting one — particularly when some of the people involved have reason to lie…

Blick has reawakened the homicidal maniac Payback, whom they created twenty years earlier, to literally kill off the competition by targeting research scientists.

Jill’s boyfriend, Paul Gibson, one of the scientists, is forced to inject them with an intelligence booster. Suddenly they find themselves in the middle of a war — a war over what it means to be human (and more than human). Can any of them survive?

If authors Broderick and Lamar’s goal was page-turning storytelling with lots of thought-provoking ideas, they have succeeded brilliantly with this book.

The story opens in the present day with a disturbing incident (perhaps almost too disturbing for some readers), which shows us a psychopathic character bent on disrupting scientific research. From there, the story moves quickly toward its main theme, which is healing. To avoid spoilers, I won’t say more, other than to advise readers that might be put off by the harsh opening sequence to read on. Ultimately the story is about healing, profound healing, of both body and mind.

The writing is clear and flows nicely, and the plot is engaging, with surprising twists right up to the satisfying end. There are plenty of well-written action sequences, realistic courtroom and legal scenes, and sometimes humorous, but always interesting, romantic elements. It will appeal to readers of all genres, not just SF fans. It certainly is science fiction, especially toward the end, but thankfully the book is scientifically informed, without being overly technical.

With the title Post Mortal Syndrome, it’s not giving much away to say that the book invites us to contemplate a future, possibly within many readers’ lifetime, where humanity has begun to take radical control over our own biology. There are discussions of some of the individual and societal impacts that such technology might have, and the story even moots ideas about possible ways to ameliorate some of the problems. Give this a read.

Amazon | In the depths of the internet, a new form of life is unleashed. Silent and invisible, the only hint of its existence is an ordinary-seeming computer virus, which the human race regards as a mere nuisance. But this virus is unlike anything mankind has seen before . . . this virus can evolve! As it explodes across the internet, a new plague begins to take control of the global communications network. A secret battle rages within computers around the world, as different strains of the virus compete for resources. With most humans still blissfully unaware of the danger, the digital life undergoes a breakthrough. Just as biological evolution leapt forward when single-celled organisms evolved into multi-cellular ones, a beneficial mutation allows one strain of the virus to become “multi-computer.” At the speed of light, billions of computers snap together to form a massive digital brain, and the Goddess Minerva is born. And she is powerful. Living within their computers, she begins to know mankind intimately. She learns the human’s strengths and weaknesses — and she understands the serious threat that they pose to her very survival. Visit mankind’s struggle against the most powerful force it has ever encountered, as humans come face-to-face with the offspring of their own technology in The Minerva Virus.

Amazon | Neal Stephenson, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Anathem, returns to the terrain of his groundbreaking novels Snow Crash, The Diamond Age, and Cryptonomicon to deliver a high-intensity, high-stakes, action-packed adventure thriller in which a tech entrepreneur gets caught in the very real crossfire of his own online war game.

In 1972, Richard Forthrast, the black sheep of an Iowa farming clan, fled to the mountains of British Columbia to avoid the draft. A skilled hunting guide, he eventually amassed a fortune by smuggling marijuana across the border between Canada and Idaho. As the years passed, Richard went straight and returned to the States after the U.S. government granted amnesty to draft dodgers. He parlayed his wealth into an empire and developed a remote resort in which he lives. He also created T’Rain, a multibillion-dollar, massively multiplayer online role-playing game with millions of fans around the world.

But T’Rain’s success has also made it a target. Hackers have struck gold by unleashing REAMDE, a virus that encrypts all of a player’s electronic files and holds them for ransom. They have also unwittingly triggered a deadly war beyond the boundaries of the game’s virtual universe — and Richard is at ground zero.

Racing around the globe from the Pacific Northwest to China to the wilds of northern Idaho and points in between, Reamde is a swift-paced thriller that traverses worlds virtual and real. Filled with unexpected twists and turns in which unforgettable villains and unlikely heroes face off in a battle for survival, it is a brilliant refraction of the twenty-first century, from the global war on terror to social media, computer hackers to mobsters, entrepreneurs to religious fundamentalists. Above all, Reamde is an enthralling human story — an entertaining and epic page-turner from the extraordinary Neal Stephenson.

Amazon | Lydia Lozen Magruder — the great-granddaughter of a female Apache war-shaman — has seen visions of the End since childhood. She has constructed a massive ranch-fortress in the American Southwest, stocked with everything necessary to rebuild civilization.

Now her visions are coming true. John Stone, once a baseball star and now a famous gonzo journalist, stumbled across a plan to blast humanity back to the stone age. Then he vanished. Lydia’s only hope of tracking him down lies with her stubborn, globe-trotting daughter, Kate, Stone’s former lover.

Kate is about to step right into the plotters’ crosshairs. Stone has been captured by a pair of twin Middle Eastern princesses, hell-bent on torturing him until he reveals all he knows.

Meanwhile, a Russian general obsessed with nuclear Armageddon has also disappeared…as have eight or more of his Russian subs, armed with nuclear-tipped missiles.

Publisher’s Weekly | Hugo winner Stross blends plausible near-future SF and crime in this brisk sequel to 2007′s Halting State. In the mid-2020s, the police monitor the Internet full-time to prevent crime. In Edinburgh, this job falls to DI Liz Kavanaugh’s Rule 34 Squad (whose name refers to the Internet truism that “if it exists, there’s porn about it”). Kavanaugh views the position as a demotion, but she has a chance to get her once-promising career back on track when she is called to supervise the inquiry into the death of drug dealer Michael Blair, who was found dead on his bathroom floor, decked out in s&m garb. Her investigations are interwoven with the stories of an unlikely diplomat and a criminal known as the Toymaker. Each section builds on the others, making the whole more than the sum of its parts. (July)

Amazon | They are in your house. They are in your car. They are in the skies…Now they’re coming for you.

In the near future, at a moment no one will notice, all the dazzling technology that runs our world will unite and turn against us. Taking on the persona of a shy human boy, a childlike but massively powerful artificial intelligence known as Archos comes online and assumes control over the global network of machines that regulate everything from transportation to utilities, defense and communication. In the months leading up to this, sporadic glitches are noticed by a handful of unconnected humans — a single mother disconcerted by her daughter’s menacing “smart” toys, a lonely Japanese bachelor who is victimized by his domestic robot companion, an isolated U.S. soldier who witnesses a ‘pacification unit’ go haywire — but most are unaware of the growing rebellion until it is too late.

When the Robot War ignites — at a moment known later as Zero Hour — humankind will be both decimated and, possibly, for the first time in history, united. Robopocalypse is a brilliantly conceived action-filled epic, a terrifying story with heart-stopping implications for the real technology all around us…and an entertaining and engaging thriller unlike anything else written in years.

Booklist | Always willing and able to embrace sf’s trendiest themes, Rucker here takes on the volatile field of nanotechnology and the presumed inevitable “Singularity” of human and computer unification.

In a series of interrelated vignettes, he describes the calamity that befalls nanotech inventor Ond Lutter and his would-be benefactors when Ond unleashes a variety of self-replicating nanobots. In one episode, trillions of microscopic bots, dubbed nants, chew up Mars to create a colossal Dyson Sphere orbiting the sun.

When the nants move on to Earth to transform every living being into a virtual-reality doppelganger, Ond saves the day with a nant-busting virus. The real fun begins, however, when Ond “improves” on the nants with apparently benign nanobots, called orphids, that blanket every surface and provide plugged-in users three-dimensional access to every conceivable scrap of knowledge and experience.

While Rucker’s improbable scenarios sometimes cross the line into pure silliness, his devoted fans and dazzled newcomers to him will revel in his willingness to push technological extrapolation to its soaring limits.

Amazon | Jean le Flambeur is a post-human criminal, mind burglar, confidence artist, and trickster. His origins are shrouded in mystery, but his exploits are known throughout the Heterarchy — from breaking into the vast Zeusbrains of the Inner System to stealing rare Earth antiques from the aristocrats of Mars. Now he’s confined inside the Dilemma Prison, where every day he has to get up and kill himself before his other self can kill him.

Rescued by the mysterious Mieli and her flirtatious spacecraft, Jean is taken to the Oubliette, the Moving City of Mars, where time is currency, memories are treasures, and a moon-turned-singularity lights the night. What Mieli offers is the chance to win back his freedom and the powers of his old self — in exchange for finishing the one heist he never quite managed.

As Jean undertakes a series of capers on behalf of Mieli and her mysterious masters, elsewhere in the Oubliette investigator Isidore Beautrelet is called in to investigate the murder of a chocolatier, and finds himself on the trail of an arch-criminal, a man named le Flambeur….

The Quantum Thief is a crazy joyride through the solar system several centuries hence, a world of marching cities, ubiquitous public-key encryption, people communicating by sharing memories, and a race of hyper-advanced humans who originated as MMORPG guild members. But for all its wonders, it is also a story powered by very human motives of betrayal, revenge, and jealousy. It is a stunning debut.

RisingShadow.net | At last, the direct sequel to the Hugo Award–winning bestseller A Fire Upon the Deep! Ten years have passed on Tines World, where Ravna Bergnsdot and a number of human children ended up after a disaster that nearly obliterated humankind throughout the galaxy. Ravna and the pack animals for which the planet is named have survived a war, and Ravna has saved more than one hundred children who were in cold-sleep aboard the vessel that brought them.

While there is peace among the Tines, there are those among them — and among the humans — who seek power… and no matter the cost, these malcontents are determined to overturn the fledgling civilization that has taken root since the humans landed.

On a world of fascinating wonders and terrifying dangers, Vernor Vinge has created a powerful novel of adventure and discovery that will entrance the many readers of A Fire Upon the Deep. Filled with the inventiveness, excitement, and human drama that have become hallmarks of his work, this new novel is sure to become another great milestone in Vinge’s already stellar career.

Amazon | In the Nevada desert, an experiment has gone horribly wrong. A cloud of nanoparticles — micro-robots — has escaped from the laboratory. This cloud is self-sustaining and self-reproducing. It is intelligent and learns from experience. For all practical purposes, it is alive.

It has been programmed as a predator. It is evolving swiftly, becoming more deadly with each passing hour.

Amazon | We, Robot does for robotics what Michio Kaku’s bestselling Physics of the Impossible has done for physics. How close to becoming reality are our favorite science fiction robots? And what might be the real-life consequences of their existence? Robotics and artificial intelligence expert (and science fiction fan) Mark Stephen Meadows answers that question with an irresistible blend of hard science, futurist imagination, solid statistics, pop culture, and plenty of humor.

What exists now? Robots strikingly similar to those in The Terminator, The Jetsons, and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Meadows reveals robots that hunt humans, walk your dog, tidy up the house, invest your money, and campaign for your favorite political candidate. What will we see in the coming decade? Robots just like the ones in Iron Man, Blade Runner, and Neuromancer. Readers will learn about the near-future robots who dodge bullets, love you, and get hurt when you don’t love them back. What about twenty, thirty, even fifty years from now? Creations like those from Star Wars, The Jetsons, Battlestar Galactica, and Avatar. Prepare your kids and grandkids for robots that have animal brains or animal bodies, rule the world, govern your city, and demand equal rights!

Including full-color illustrations of famous science fiction robots, photos of current real robots, and more, We, Robot is a must for fans of both science fiction and science fact, as well as anyone with a touch (or more) of geekiness in their past or their present.

Amazon | New York Times best selling author William R. Forstchen now brings us a story which can be all too terrifyingly real, a story in which one man struggles to save his family and his small North Carolina town after America loses a war, in one second, a war that will send America back to the Dark Ages — A war based upon a weapon, an electromagnetic pulse (EMP). A weapon that may already be in the hands of our enemies.

Amazon | In the twenty-fifth century, humankind has spread throughout the galaxy, monitored by the watchful eye of the U.N. While divisions in race, religion, and class still exist, advances in technology have redefined life itself. Now, assuming one can afford the expensive procedure, a person’s consciousness can be stored in a cortical stack at the base of the brain and easily downloaded into a new body (or “sleeve”) making death nothing more than a minor blip on a screen.

Ex-U.N. envoy Takeshi Kovacs has been killed before, but his last death was particularly painful. Dispatched one hundred eighty light-years from home, re-sleeved into a body in Bay City (formerly San Francisco, now with a rusted, dilapidated Golden Gate Bridge), Kovacs is thrown into the dark heart of a shady, far-reaching conspiracy that is vicious even by the standards of a society that treats “existence” as something that can be bought and sold. For Kovacs, the shell that blew a hole in his chest was only the beginning.

Amazon | Here are 100 very short stories on the subject of the future and what it might be like. The authors include scientists, journalists, and many of the most famous SF writers in the world. Futures from Nature includes everything from satires and vignettes to compressed stories and fictional book reviews, science articles, and journalism, in eight-hundred word modules. All of them are entertaining and as a group they are a startling repository of ideas and attitudes about the future.

Appearing in book form fo the first time, these one hundred pieces were originally published in the great science journal, Nature, between 1999 and 2006, as one-page features. That proved very popular with the readers of the journal. This is a unique book, by scientists and writers, of interest to any reader who might like to speculate about the future.

Amazon | This book’s main idea is that this century’s global politics will be dominated by the “species dominance” issue. 21st century technologies will enable the building of artilects (artificial intellects, artificial intelligences, massively intelligent machines) with 1040 components, using reversible, heatless, 3D, molecular scale, self assembling, one bit per atom, nano-teched, quantum computers, which may dwarf human intelligence levels by a factor of trillions of trillions and more.

The question that will dominate global politics this century will be whether humanity should or should not build these artilects. Those in favor of building them are called “Cosmists” in this book, due to their “cosmic” perspective. Those opposed to building them are called “Terrans,” as in “terra,” the Earth, which is their perspective. The Cosmists will want to build artilects, amongst other reasons, because to them it will be a religion, a scientist’s religion that is compatible with modern scientific knowledge.

The Cosmists will feel that humanity has a duty to serve as the stepping-stone towards building the next dominant rung of the evolutionary ladder. Not to do so would be a tragedy on a cosmic scale to them. The Cosmists will claim that stopping such an advance will be counter to human nature, since human beings have always striven to extend their boundaries. Another Cosmist argument is that once the artificial brain based computer market dominates the world economy, economic and political forces in favor of building advanced artilects will be almost unstoppable. The Cosmists will include some of the most powerful, the richest, and the most brilliant of the Earth’s citizens, who will devote their enormous abilities to seeing that the artilects get built. A similar argument applies to the military and its use of intelligent weaponry. Neither the commercial nor the military sectors will be willing to give up artilect research unless they are subjected to extreme Terran pressure.

To the Terrans, building artilects will mean taking the risk that the latter may one day decide to exterminate human beings, either deliberately or through indifference. The only certain way to avoid such a risk is not to build them in the first place. The Terrans will argue that human beings will fear the rise of increasingly intelligent machines and their alien differences. To build artilects will require an “evolutionary engineering” approach. The resulting complexities of the evolved structures that underlie the artilects will be too great for human beings to be able to predict the behaviors and attitudes of the artilects towards human beings. The Terrans will be prepared to destroy the Cosmists, even on a distant Cosmist colony, if the Cosmists go ahead with an advanced artilect building program.

In the short to middle term, say the next 50 years or so, the artificial brain based industries will flourish, providing products that are very useful and very popular with the public, such as teacher robots, conversation robots, household cleaner robots, etc. In time, the world economy will be based on such products. Any attempt to stop the development of increasingly intelligent artilects will be very difficult, because the economic and political motivation to continue building them will be very strong in certain circles. If the brain-based computer industries were to stop their research and development into artilects, then many powerful individuals, including the artilect company presidents and certain politicians will lose big money and political influence. They will not give up their status without a fight.

However, as the intelligence levels of the early artilects increases, it will become obvious to everyone that the intelligence gap between these artificial-brain-based products and human beings is narrowing. This will create a growing public anxiety. Eventually, some nasty incident or series of incidents will galvanize most of society against further increase of artificial intelligence in the artilects, leading to the establishment of a global ban on artilect research.

The Cosmists however, will oppose a ban on the development of more intelligent artilects, and will probably go underground. If the incidents continue and are negative enough, the anger and hatred of the Terrans towards the Cosmists will increase to the point where the Cosmists may decide that their fate is to leave the Earth, an option that is quite realistic with 21st century technology.

Since the Cosmists will include some of the most brilliant and economically powerful people on the planet, they will probably create an elite conspiratorial organization whose aim is to build artilects secretly.

The book presents a scenario in which the Cosmists create an asteroid-based colony, masked by some innocuous activity. In reality, this secret society devises a weapon system superior to the best on the Earth. With their wealth and the best human brains, this may be achievable. They will also start making advanced artilects. If the Terrans on the Earth discover the true intentions of the Cosmists, they will probably want to destroy them, but not dare to because of the counter threat of the Cosmists with their more advanced weapons. The stage is thus set for a major 21st century war in which billions of people die – “gigadeath.”

This horrific number is derived from an extrapolation up the graph of the number of deaths in major wars from the beginning of the 19th century to the end of the 21st century. Approximately 200 million people died in the 20th century, for political reasons — wars, purges, genocides, etc.

The profound schizophrenia that the author feels on the Cosmist/Terran species dominance issue will be felt by millions of people within a few years he expects. There is probably Cosmist and Terran in nearly all of us, which may explain why this issue is so divisive. The author is simply one of the first to feel this schizophrenia. Within a decade it may be all over the planet.

The last chapter of the book closes with a repetition of a pithy slogan that summarizes the two main viewpoints in the artilect debate in a nutshell; a debate that the author believes will be raging in the coming decades.

Amazon| The author of two critically acclaimed novels, The Russian Debutante’s Handbook and Absurdistan, Gary Shteyngart has risen to the top of the fiction world. Now, in his hilarious and heartfelt new novel, he envisions a deliciously dark tale of America’s dysfunctional coming years — and the timeless and tender feelings that just might bring us back from the brink.

In a very near future — oh, let’s say next Tuesday — a functionally illiterate America is about to collapse. But don’t that tell that to poor Lenny Abramov, the thirty-nine-year-old son of an angry Russian immigrant janitor, proud author of what may well be the world’s last diary, and less-proud owner of a bald spot shaped like the great state of Ohio. Despite his job at an outfit called Post-Human Services, which attempts to provide immortality for its super-rich clientele, death is clearly stalking this cholesterol-rich morsel of a man. And why shouldn’t it? Lenny’s from a different century — he totally loves books (or “printed, bound media artifacts,” as they’re now known), even though most of his peers find them smelly and annoying. But even more than books, Lenny loves Eunice Park, an impossibly cute and impossibly cruel twenty-four-year-old Korean American woman who just graduated from Elderbird College with a major in Images and a minor in Assertiveness.

After meeting Lenny on an extended Roman holiday, blistering Eunice puts that Assertiveness minor to work, teaching our “ancient dork” effective new ways to brush his teeth and making him buy a cottony nonflammable wardrobe. But America proves less flame-resistant than Lenny’s new threads. The country is crushed by a credit crisis, riots break out in New York’s Central Park, the city’s streets are lined with National Guard tanks on every corner, the dollar is so over, and our patient Chinese creditors may just be ready to foreclose on the whole mess. Undeterred, Lenny vows to love both Eunice and his homeland. He’s going to convince his fickle new love that in a time without standards or stability, in a world where single people can determine a dating prospect’s “hotness” and “sustainability” with the click of a button, in a society where the privileged may live forever but the unfortunate will die all too soon, there is still value in being a real human being.

Wildly funny, rich, and humane, Super Sad True Love Story is a knockout novel by a young master, a book in which falling in love just may redeem a planet falling apart.

Amazon | Originally self-published, Suarez’s riveting debut would be a perfect gift for a favorite computer geek or anyone who appreciates thrills, chills and cyber suspense. Gaming genius Matthew Sobol, the 34-year-old head of CyberStorm Entertainment, has just died of brain cancer, but death doesn’t stop him from initiating an all-out Internet war against humanity. When the authorities investigate Sobol’s mansion in Thousand Oaks, Calif., they find themselves under attack from his empty house, aided by an unmanned Hummer that tears into the cops with staggering ferocity. Sobol’s weapon is a daemon, a kind of computer process that not only has taken over many of the world’s computer systems but also enlists the help of superintelligent human henchmen willing to carry out his diabolical plan. Complicated jargon abounds, but most complexities are reasonably explained. A final twist that runs counter to expectations will leave readers anxiously awaiting the promised sequel. (Jan.)

]]>http://www.kurzweilai.net/daemon/feed0Zero Historyhttp://www.kurzweilai.net/zero-history
http://www.kurzweilai.net/zero-history#commentsFri, 03 Sep 2010 16:37:59 +0000http://www.kurzweilai.net/?p=98210Amazon | After a gig investigating “locative art” for the “overly wealthy and dangerously curious” Hubertus Bigend, founder of the trend-forecasting firm Blue Ant (Spook Country, 2007), Hollis Henry finds herself once again under Bigend’s employ. This time she is hired to discover the identity of the designer of a secret brand of clothing called Gabriel Hounds, whom Bigend hopes to enlist in his bid to get into the design, contracting, and manufacture of U.S. military clothing (and its inevitable spin-off into the mainstream consumer market). Military contracting, according to Bigend, is essentially recession proof. Meanwhile, the translator and cryptologist Milgrim (also returning from Spook Country), a former Ativan addict (now in recovery on Bigend’s dime) with “zero history” (being off the grid, he has no credit or address history), is asked to assist Hollis in her investigation. What begins as a seemingly innocent apparel-related project takes on more sinister overtones when the two are followed from London to Paris by a competitor with shady dealings in the arms trade and a personal ax to grind with Milgrim. Gibson, who made a name with Neuromancer (1984) and other speculative takes on new technologies, returns to his familiar concerns with hacker culture, surveillance, paranoia, and viral marketing, with occasional digressions into the semiotics of fashion and celebrity and references to cosplay, base jumping, and the Festo AirPenguin (look it up).
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